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New Eircom Phone Boxes around the place?.

  • 07-07-2013 7:01pm
    #1
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 137 ✭✭eirebread


    Republic of Ireland:

    - Some new Eircom phone boxes around the country side and even in the city would be great.

    What do you think?


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,442 ✭✭✭Sulla Felix


    What few are left are regular targets of vandalism. Don't see the need.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 137 ✭✭eirebread


    What few are left are regular targets of vandalism. Don't see the need.

    - Add CCTV (1080p night vision), wait for vandalism.
    put cctv footage on news so peeps won't do it again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 33,650 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato
    Restaurant at the End of the Universe


    The mobile phone has been invented. Nobody uses phone boxes any more.

    It took a while but I don't mind. How does my body look in this light?



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 137 ✭✭eirebread


    ninja900 wrote: »
    The mobile phone has been invented. Nobody uses phone boxes any more.
    sorry, i'm an old man in mayo.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,062 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Usage figures are lower than they ever have been and they're being systematically removed. They won't be adding any more.

    As it stands any private company can put in boxes if they want, but they don't as there is zero money in it.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Eircom only keep them in service because ComReg forces them to under a Universal Service Order.
    They make no money out of them anymore.

    In Belgium, Belgacom just announced it's removing all of the last remaining pay-phones and never installing any ever again.

    Nobody really uses them anymore and they're quite expensive to maintain.

    I'd rather eircom spent money on things like ensuring rural areas got access to broadband than nonsense like pay phones.

    The pay phone's gone the way of the steam train and the jukebox. You'll only ever see them as some kind of novelty item on show in a very short few years time.


  • Registered Users Posts: 78,218 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    They're actually useful as base stations for Wi-Fi and the like.

    Most of those removed have been multiple phone boxes replaced by a single box, the number of locations has remained roughly the same.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,062 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Victor wrote: »
    Most of those removed have been multiple phone boxes replaced by a single box, the number of locations has remained roughly the same.

    Around me, they've gone from 5 locations + some in-store units to 1 single (where there was 4) and one double (where there was 4). Both used as Wifi base stations. Definitely not just deduplication.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    They definitely haven't just removed ones that were duplicated with multiple payphones. They've removed 2,151 payphones back in 2009 and that's from a much reduced base on what the had in the 1990s.

    http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/eircom-rings-in-changes-with-plan-to-remove-half-its-kiosks-26507946.html

    Eircom were quite open about the fact that some locations were making barely any money at all i.e. a few calls a week at most.

    It costs a lot of money to maintain them, collect cash, etc and if they're bringing in no money what's the point?

    Maybe they could be replaced with a WiFi hub built into a pole or something like that in some urban locations but I don't really see any reason to keep pay phones alive. Litterally nobody uses them anymore.

    Even tourists are highly unlikely to use pay phones these days and international calls are *much* cheaper on a prepay mobile.

    For example, if you're visiting Ireland you could pick up a Tesco mobile for €20 (including the handset) top up by €10 and have calls to the US/Canada and most of Europe for about 1 cent a min.

    If you've an unlocked SIM free mobile, it's only the matter of whacking in a local SIM and a lot of Europeans have cheap roaming here.

    I think the payphone's days are seriously numbered.

    I really don't buy the argument that they're a social need anymore. A cheap mobile + credit is MUCH cheaper than using a payphone. It's possible to buy a mobile for the price of what a CallCard would have cost in the 90s and you can receive incoming calls, texts etc which is a lot more than a payphone can do for you.

    Mobile phone charging points with USB ports or 230V sockets would probably be more useful these days!

    The world's moved on and the whole idea of a phone screwed to a wall with a coin and card slot in a country with more mobiles than people stopped making sense quite a few years ago.

    Even the attempts at smart payphones that offered Internet access are no longer relevant. Very few people who need access to email on the move don't have a tablet, laptop or smartphone.

    Many people, myself included, would probably struggle to remember how to use a payphone!
    I picked one up this morning or of curiosity and it said something about minimum fee €2!!! I'd get 2 hours to the states for €1.20 on my mobile!!

    For tourists in particular public WiFi is the real need at the moment.


  • Registered Users Posts: 33,650 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato
    Restaurant at the End of the Universe


    Victor wrote: »
    They're actually useful as base stations for Wi-Fi and the like.

    True, but Eircom restricted the wi-fi to their own broadband customers. As the phone boxes are available on an equal basis to anyone willing to pay, the wi-fi should've been also.

    It took a while but I don't mind. How does my body look in this light?



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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,859 ✭✭✭donspeekinglesh


    Non eircom customers can pay to use the broadband, and eircom mobile customers (emobile and meteor) get free access, not just broadband customers.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Phone boxes aren't the ideal source of wifi in Ireland though. It's rarely warm enough to sit outside with your laptop!

    In-shopping centre, in-cafe hotspots are far more useful.


  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 10,686 Mod ✭✭✭✭melekalikimaka


    i was on london last week, ran out of credit on my phone and was on way to mates, not sure where he lived, found a payphone and it saved my skin, would have been screwed otherwise, it was grim inside, and used my sleeves to lift it but it did the job


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,476 ✭✭✭ardmacha


    press Button B at this stage.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,062 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    ninja900 wrote: »
    True, but Eircom restricted the wi-fi to their own broadband customers. As the phone boxes are available on an equal basis to anyone willing to pay, the wi-fi should've been also.

    It is available for anyone willing to pay - it just happens to be free for Eircom BB or Meteor/eMobile billpay customers. Seems to be significantly cheaper than it used to be too:

    http://www.eircom.net/wifihub/register-eircom-wifi-hotspot/noneircom/


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    ardmacha wrote: »
    press Button B at this stage.

    I have no idea what "button B" did. Old people seem to talk about it a lot!

    I think that kind of proves how old the technology is at this stage :) Time to burry it along with TELEX, Rotary Dial phones, dial-up modems, Minitel, CRT televisions and other ancient technologies.

    I'd say the Fax Machine's days are seriously numbered too lol


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,062 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    I still install new fax machines and dial up modems frequently. Medical profession uses fax machines to exchange documents that need real signatures; and the standard for automated ordering of drugs from suppliers is based on direct dial. How I wish they were dead technologies!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    MYOB wrote: »
    I still install new fax machines and dial up modems frequently. Medical profession uses fax machines to exchange documents that need real signatures; and the standard for automated ordering of drugs from suppliers is based on direct dial. How I wish they were dead technologies!

    Certain professions would still be using quills if they could still buy them!

    They'll be in big trouble if the telcos decide to shut down the PSTN when it stops making money.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,395 ✭✭✭✭mikemac1


    Pretty much every company in the IFSC uses fax to exchange documents. All to do with signatures

    Will take a long long time to die out

    Sure the Premier League clubs put together multi million pound transfers and try to fax in the docs minutes before the deadline. They don't always succeed to get the fax through


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,235 ✭✭✭lucernarian


    I wonder what will happen come a serious problem with mobile phone networks? E.g. a power outage or so on. Payphones are powered by the exchange which itself enjoys battery or even generator backup. Mobile phone networks do not have the same protection.

    For the sake of public safety if nothing else, I see a social imperative for payphones to be subsidised and maintained at some basic level of availability and access. Perhaps more could be placed inside hotels or petrol stations that have long opening hours to get around the vandalism issue.

    There's a reason why all new motorways had emergency phones fitted every so often along the side.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    mikemac1 wrote: »
    Pretty much every company in the IFSC uses fax to exchange documents. All to do with signatures

    Will take a long long time to die out

    Sure the Premier League clubs put together multi million pound transfers and try to fax in the docs minutes before the deadline. They don't always succeed to get the fax through

    Increasingly, scanned to PDF is what we use. A lot of our clients/suppliers no longer accept faxes.

    You could replace payphones with a robust emergency phone on a pole. It would only dial 1800 numbers and 999/112


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,349 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Lets see, you can by a mobile phone for just €15 from Tesco Mobile!

    You then just need to top up by €10, they then double your credit to €20

    You then just need to use the phone once every 6 months to keep it active (send a text).

    Calls cost 20c per minute to any landline or mobile and 10c for texts (effectively 10c and 5c with the free credit).

    Note that elderly people receive an allowance of €9.50 per month towards their mobile phone. Tesco have a plan that costs just €10, but gives you €30 of credit per month. That is 150 minutes worth of free calls per month.

    BTW IMO going this way is much better value for money for elderly people then sticking with an Eircom landline.

    Frankly there is no excuse for anyone not to have a mobile and therefore no need for phone boxes.


  • Registered Users Posts: 78,218 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    I've never lost a house phone, but I regularly can't find my mobile. :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,235 ✭✭✭lucernarian


    Mobile phones are only as good as the networks that they use, the power the phone has and the capacity of the phone network to deal with lots of users simultaneously. None of which can be relied on in the same way in times of emergency, even on a very localised level (like a car accident and someone has a phone battery off etc.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,349 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Mobile phones are only as good as the networks that they use, the power the phone has and the capacity of the phone network to deal with lots of users simultaneously. None of which can be relied on in the same way in times of emergency, even on a very localised level (like a car accident and someone has a phone battery off etc.

    I think it depends on where you live, if you live in a rural area, very far from your neighbours, then fair enough.

    If you live in an urban or semi urban area, then if your mobile isn't working, then just call on your neighbour or passing stranger and ask them to call emergency services.

    In many ways a mobile can be more useful for an elderly person as they can use it to call for help if out and about.

    In your example of a car crash, well a landline is pretty useless to you anyway!

    But it is always possible to wave down a passing motorist and have them call for help.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,235 ✭✭✭lucernarian


    I'm skeptical. I know where I live in Dublin, I would want to avoid my neighbours if anything!

    I didn't explain my earlier post well. Problems can arise without payphones even for small incidents. The main point is what happens during times of serious or widespread emergency, power outages, civil unrest etc. I mean the authorities now have the power to switch off mobile phone networks in areas as required to prevent security threats etc. Even UPC's phone service will go dead at the moment a power outage happens unless you want to wire it up to a car battery. And the last time I lost power in Dublin, it was gone for 18 hours.

    If nothing else I'd love to see some provision made for emergency purposes. And maybe hotels or bars could still provide payphones or inside petrol stations and so on. Eircom seems to look for an obscene amount of money to provide these things, even in secured locations.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    Are there any health issues associated with mobile phones or has that been forgotten about due to the avalanche of disasters - political, financial, environmental etc. - since the issue was last in vogue? I have a mobile but try to make/answer as few calls as possible due to my concerns regarding possible health issues - I text, use it as an alarm clock and a stopwatch for timing baking/immersion etc. but I prefer my landline for conversation.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,830 ✭✭✭shawnee


    eirebread wrote: »
    Republic of Ireland:

    - Some new Eircom phone boxes around the country side and even in the city would be great.

    What do you think?

    Dream on !!:P:P Eircom is a private company that survives on cash flow , not much flowing out of those phoneboxes.:p


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Mobile phones are only as good as the networks that they use, the power the phone has and the capacity of the phone network to deal with lots of users simultaneously. None of which can be relied on in the same way in times of emergency, even on a very localised level (like a car accident and someone has a phone battery off etc.


    Well so far this year:

    Our landline has gone down twice. Once due to a software error at the exchange and once due to a line break caused by construction work


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  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,349 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    I didn't explain my earlier post well. Problems can arise without payphones even for small incidents. The main point is what happens during times of serious or widespread emergency, power outages, civil unrest etc. I mean the authorities now have the power to switch off mobile phone networks in areas as required to prevent security threats etc. Even UPC's phone service will go dead at the moment a power outage happens unless you want to wire it up to a car battery. And the last time I lost power in Dublin, it was gone for 18 hours.

    The authorities can also switch off the land line network if they so choose, no difference there.

    Cell sites have battery backup (UPS) too and they normally don't go off line in case of a power outage. Generators can be brought in for long term electricity outages, the only issue is that after 24 hours peoples mobile phones would start dying. However I do know that in the cases of localised long term power outages, the emergency services have the ability to bring in generator trucks which people can charge from.

    If you are truly worried, then you can get this mobile phone that is powered by a single AA battery:

    https://www.expansys.ie/spareone-emergency-phone-white-900-1800mhz-240559/

    Alternatively there are solar and wind up chargers for mobiles out there too.

    In a very widespread emergency or a case of civil disobedience, well the emergency services will be so busy, they won't have time to take your call anyway.

    BTW also most mobile phone companies have portable cell site trucks that they can move into place. They are usually used to boost cell reception at concerts, etc. but can also be put into place for emergencies.


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